The Chiming of a Perfect Chord

Day Three

You can (add9)

to an A minor

and it peals, like

a big, simple agony.

I always knew that chord

I think, before I held

the axe in my hands.

Before things

bade me lie down in its bed.

You can't (add9)

to a dovetail joint

nor palm-mute

a database, oh,

I wish I knew how

to be open-voiced

in appraisal.

I could have been middle-management by now.